This invention relates to random noise generators, and in particular to quantum-random number generation. The invention has uses in quantum random noise, number, and bit generation; nondeterministic random noise, number, and bit generation; entropy sources; cryptographic key generation; symmetric and asymmetric cryptography; and more generally in cryptography.
Hardware random number generators are known which produce random numbers that are derived from physical processes. For example, one known technique relies upon a hash function run against a frame of a video stream from an unpredictable source. Another random number source uses variations in the amplitude of atmospheric noise recorded with a normal radio.
Quantum-random number generators are also known. Quantum-random number generators derive random numbers from measurements conducted on quantum processes or quantum systems. The uniqueness and randomness of the outcomes of these measurements are of quantum origin as described by the laws of quantum physics. Known quantum processes or quantum systems from which quantum-random numbers can be derived include, for example, Johnson-Nyquist shot noise, or radiation from nuclear decay. Measurement outcomes derived from measurements made on quantum states of light are another example of a source of quantum-random numbers.